Hugs

Joel Mesler (b. 1974 in Los Angeles, CA) is a painter and former gallerist. He paints words and colloquial phrases that, at once, feel immediately relatable, and yet also, idiosyncratic in their careful attention to shiny, slippery surfaces, mysterious floral grounds, swimming pools and other surreal forms. His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including Paradise Found at Paradise City, South Korea (2025); Joel Mesler: Miles of Smiles at Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY (2025); The Light Within at the Nassima Landau Art Foundation, Tel Aviv, Israel (2025); Pool Party at the Rockefeller Center in New York (2024); Joel Mesler: Kitchens are good rooms to cry in, Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York, 2024; Spiritual Journey at the Long Museum in Shanghai (2023) and Sunrise Sunset at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles (2023).